Right, all of you marketing data-gurus and engineers out there. Now’s your time to shine. It’s time to put data in the marketing-driver seat.
Marketing has undergone a fundamental shift over the years and moved beyond branding and advertising. Gone are the days when marketers worked in isolation and made decisions based on assumptions. Instead, we are strategic, commercial, and working cross-functionally to build and deliver great customer experiences. And in order to do so, we turn to the most reliable source of information: data.
Marketing has always been seen as a creative art. When in fact, marketing sits at the intersection of art and science.
Modern marketing is about tapping into the power of data-driven insights, but most marketers struggle to lead with a data-driven approach purely due to not having the right tools in place, not having access to good data or a lack of understanding of how to interpret the information and turn it into a wonderful story.
I want to start by saying that the idea of a data-driven marketing approach may sound intimidating at first. Don’t worry though, I got you.
Hopefully what I’m about to share will help alleviate some of the mystery of what it means to lead with data and provide you with some strategies that you may want to implement yourself (even if you don’t have a huge budget and a lot of resource at your disposal).
#1 Develop and deploy a data health plan
Old school, right? I had to put this at number one because it is so, so important. I don’t think many businesses realise how important it is to keep your database clean. I know, it’s boring and time-consuming, and you might feel like it’s not your job. But it is, and as marketers, we should be proud of a clean and healthy database – it enables us to do so much more and with so much more accuracy.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s how my data plan is laid out:
- Data examining & cleansing checklist (e.g. remove hard bounced, find duplicates, formatting issues, missing mandatory fields etc.)
- Standardising processes (e.g. data input and mandatory fields, adding contacts manually)
- Data cleansing maintenance & schedule
- Responsibility of cleansing
That’s all you need. Simple.
#2 Create your target personas using your actual data (not imagination or assumption)
One of the first things I did when I re-joined Consumer Intelligence last year was to look at our current database, with the view to carry out some simple analysis to help build a picture of our existing and prospective customers.
Now, it’s important to focus on the right data for what you’re trying to achieve. In this case, I gathered the following data to help me with this:
- Google Analytics – to obtain demographic details & interests
- HubSpot Website Analytics – to obtain content interests, behaviours, traffic sources & performance
- HubSpot CRM – to understand the size of our database, demographic details (job titles, company names, seniority etc.)
- Social Media – to gather interests, demographics, personal & professional information
- Internal interviews – to capture key stakeholder feedback to a series of questions about our customers
I’m no statistician, so I quite literally reviewed the data and tried to group my findings together to help build a view of the most common types of people that:
- Purchase specific services
- Have specific job titles
- Prefer certain types of communication
- Are interested in specific content types
- Have common pains & needs
I took this information and ran a very productive internal workshop to help us develop our target personas. I promise, it really was as simple as that.
#3 Utilise the marketing tools around you
I’m lucky to have access to HubSpot, arguably one of my favourite marketing automation platforms. We lead with data all of the time in HubSpot by utilising the automation function based on how page visitors behave. For example, we have automations in place that aim to re-engage low engaged contacts through sharing our most popular blogs and encouraging users to register to our Exciting Insight newsletter.
We’re also working on building out different automation streams depending on the persona a specific contact falls under (which is also automated and based on specific criteria we have set). This automation will then take them on their own content buying journey from awareness and consideration through to decision.
Whilst this is slightly more labour intensive to implement, once it is in place, it is very low maintenance and continues to work in the background.
#4 Personalise your customer experience
One of the best ways to capture someone’s attention is by tailoring your content. In the book, Transforming the B2B Sales Function, nearly 70% of today’s B2B buyers expect an “Amazon-like” experience. This is because the content and messaging is highly personalised and tailored to their interests and needs. This is an area that we are building out further at Consumer Intelligence through the execution of our ABX (account-based experience) strategy. The key to being able to do this right though is… you guessed it, data.
One of the ways we use personalisation across our website is on specific campaign landing pages. For example, we’ll use the company name and sometimes the contact’s name. We’ve found this to be an effective strategy as content stands out more when they can see their own information on what’s in front of them.
#5 Test, learn, test, repeat
These days, agile marketers are giving themselves permission to test, learn and optimise their activity. The beauty of this approach is that it allows for innovation and optimisation of existing campaigns and activities without judgement. Sometimes we try things, and they don’t work. Don’t sweat it, just learn from it and move on. This is something we do again and again at Consumer Intelligence, and I rarely think to myself that I wish I hadn’t tried something. So, if I can give you any advice, is to try it and see!
One of the ways we use this approach is through digital advertising. This tactic allows us to test, pause, stop, refine, and optimise. It really works for us and allows us to quickly learn and move forward. Other ways in which we use the test, learn method is through A/B testing of our email campaigns and how we capture feedback.
Let the results tell you whether a tactic is working, and don’t be afraid to put your hands up and say when it didn’t work. Just make sure you learn from it.
Today’s marketer has more access to data about their consumers than ever before. It’s time to use it to your advantage.